Tuesday Tangents: 10 Items or Less

Tuesday Tangents: 10 Items or Less

“Time, time, time See what’s become of me While I looked around for my possibilities I was so hard to please…” It was a pretty hazy – and rainy – shade of winter in Southern California this past weekend, and yet time, time, time seems to have gotten away from me. Once again, I don’t have a proper post drafted up for today, so you’re getting the assorted-randomness bit again. I hope you’ll enjoy the […]

Season’s Greetings: The Santa secret

Season’s Greetings: The Santa secret

This was originally posted on the Los Angeles Moms Blog last year, but I’ve updated it a little… “Look, there goes Santa Claus,” I said to Spencer (my 9 10-year-old stepson) one recent Saturday afternoon. We were at the front of a store, waiting for my husband to finish a purchase, when we saw the Man in Red walking down the mall with a few of his assistants. “Yeah,” Spencer said. “He’s not the real […]

Sunday Salon: Bookkeeping and bookish thoughts

Sunday Salon: Bookkeeping and bookish thoughts

If you rate books – when you review them on your blog, and/or on your LibraryThing or GoodReads account – what does it take for a book to earn your highest rating? At our recent SoCal book-blogger meet-up, Amy posed that question to me. She knows I use a 5-point rating scale, and questioned whether I’d given a 5 to any books I read this year. Since I didn’t, she wanted to know: How would […]

Week-End Review: This week around the blogiverse

Week-End Review: This week around the blogiverse

Two weeks from today, we’ll be waking up on Christmas morning! Guess we’d better get our tree up soon, hadn’t we? To those of you who will be lighting the menorah and starting your celebration tonight, Happy Chanukah! New Arrivals in my Google Reader Too Many Books, Too Little Time Baby Got Books Book Snob LaurieWrites I Have Things… Dispatches: Links of the Week Lots of holiday-themed links this week, but hopefully not an overdose […]

Progressive Dinner Party: Dessert course – Chocolate Trifle

Progressive Dinner Party: Dessert course – Chocolate Trifle

We’re testing the theory that one can never have too much chocolate today at the Book Bloggers’ Progressive Dinner Party, where we have moved on to the dessert course! I hope you’ve had the chance to devour Devourer of Books‘ delicious fudge. Now, I hope you’ll settle in around my table for one of my family’s favorites – Chocolate Trifle. This recipe came to me from my sister, who received it from our aunt. I […]

Such scandalous news! (Weekend Assignment – on Wednesday – #296)

Such scandalous news! (Weekend Assignment – on Wednesday – #296)

Karen is scandalized, and wants to know if other Weekend Assignment participants are too: Weekend Assignment #296: The press and the public always seem to be obsessed with one scandal or another, from Tiger Woods to Balloon Boy. Do you eagerly follow such stories, try to avoid them, or something in between? Does the identity of the celebrity (or would-be celebrity) affect how interested you are? Extra Credit: Have you ever purchased a supermarket tabloid? […]

Book talk: “Lift,” by Rebecca O’Connor

Book talk: “Lift,” by Rebecca O’Connor

Disclosures: My thanks to the author, Rebecca O’Connor, for sending me an ARC of this book to review. *The puchasing link at the end of the review goes through my Amazon Associates account. Lift Rebecca K. O’Connor Red Hen Press, 2009 (ISBN 9781597094603 / 1597094609) Memoir, 208 pages Opening Lines: “I should kill the duck. I know how to do it. A master falconer showed me with a deft hand.” Book description: Captivated by a […]

Here’s to your – I mean MY – health!

Here’s to your – I mean MY – health!

I probably should be more scared of cancer than I am. My father-in-law died of cancer four years ago (and, in an odd coincidence, so did my ex-father-in-law, eleven years earlier). My mother-in-law made a full recovery from breast cancer, but both she and my husband have had cancerous and pre-cancerous skin moles removed before they spread. Given that, when it comes to that side of the family, cancer is certainly one of the things […]

Sunday Salon 12/6: “19 Days Till Christmas” edition

Sunday Salon 12/6: “19 Days Till Christmas” edition

‘Tis the season for year-end wrap-ups. I’ve already participated in the Weekly Geeks‘ Book Bloggers’ Top 10 of 2009 preliminaries, and really need to find some time to think about my personal Books of the Year picks (can’t write a post about them till I decide what they are!). I expect those to differ a bit from the Top 10 list, since it’s based on books I read this year, regardless of when they were […]

Week-End Review, “Two weeks of links” edition

Week-End Review, “Two weeks of links” edition

Since I missed last Friday, I have LOTS of links to share this week, so let’s move right along… New Arrivals in my Google Reader Novelwhore’s Blog nomadreader My Books. My Life. Books Worth Reading The New Dork Review of Books Dispatches: Links of the (last 2) Week(s) Baking cookies every day ⇨ a daily cookie giveaway: a donation to a food pantry means food for them, and – maybe – cookies for you! When […]

Book talk: “When She Flew,” by Jennie Shortridge (TLC Book Tour)

Book talk: “When She Flew,” by Jennie Shortridge (TLC Book Tour)

Disclosures: Thanks to Lisa at TLC Book Tours and the author for providing me with a signed copy of this book for review. *The purchasing link at the end of this review goes through my Amazon Associates account.   When She Flew Jennie Shortridge NAL Trade (2009), Paperback (ISBN 0451227980 / 9780451227980) Fiction, 352 pages Opening Lines: “The baby clothes drew Jess first, even though her grandson was now turning three. She couldn’t walk past […]

Warm-ups (Weekend Assignment #295)

Warm-ups (Weekend Assignment #295)

Karen, our Weekend Assignment host, lives in the usually hot Arizona desert, but asks about winter weather this week: Weekend Assignment #295: Even in Tucson, things can get a bit chilly on December nights. What is your favorite way to keep warm? Extra Credit: What is the temperature setting on your thermostat? Right now, the thermostat is set at 73, but the heat’s not turned on. I’ll switch it on and lower it to 69 […]